There are many coatings, varnishes, inks, toners, adhesives, overcoatings, washes and the like which can be used by manufacturers to impart various properties or characteristics to the surfaces or substrates to which they are applied. Such materials are widely and commonly used in the printing and graphic arts industry as well as other applications. Their use depends on the specific need, end result or application to which the coated materials or substrates are to be made.
Unfortunately, while these materials meet the various functional needs of the manufacturer such as gloss or shine, they can also come with various undesirable attributes and drawbacks, one of which is the emission of displeasing or unpleasant olfactory properties, which makes use by the customer potentially difficult and may lead to customer complaints depending on the strength of the offending smell or odor and sensitivity of the end user. Manufacturers have thus attempted to combat this situation through the use of the inclusion of perfumes and scents, peppermint, spearmint with vanilla being a particularly popular one. However, with the inclusion of these additional components, comes the expected and undesirable affect of increased prices due to the presence of the perfumes and scents in the coating. Typically, and depending on the type of coating, in order for the scents or perfumes to be effective the scents or perfumes may need to be added in relatively significant amounts in order to overcome the smell or odor that emanating from the coating.
Unfortunately, it has also been found that even with the inclusion of perfumes or scents, while one smell or odor (the original odor) may be decimated, the end user or customer may find the particular perfume or scent that has been included in the coating to be offensive or trigger an allergic reaction, hence destroying the entire intent of producing a product that overcomes the aforementioned drawback.
A yet still further drawback in addition to the expense, is that when synthetic materials are used to conceal the odor of the coating, the coated substrate may loose some of its environmentally friendly characteristics and thus may no longer be acceptable for recycling and may require specific handling and disposal requirements, which again can be costly for the manufacturer and the distributor.
Still another problem with adding or applying such materials to substrates, particularly glossy coatings, materials and the like is that these shinny coatings can create potentially dangerous situations when the coated substrate is inadvertently left on the floor or other surface. The glossy coating has a reduced surface attraction with the surface it is on which can lead potentially to slip and fall accidents by innocent bystanders. In addition, when such glossy materials are placed within a stack, the stack may splay out of alignment making distribution or feeding for subsequent processing difficult and requiring the manufacturer to realign the stack of items.
What is therefore needed is a way to reduce the offending odor of such coatings so that such coatings may continue to be used within the printing and graphic arts industries without customer complaints, as well as to eliminate problems associated with surface affinity so that coated sheets may be handled more efficiently, without increasing the costs of the product or the problems associated with disposal of such coated substrates.